The Royal Affairs of Elle Fairfax
by catpiano
Summary: Apparently, having Nobel Michel as a great-grandfather means that being a normal girl is out of the question - after all, normal girls get to marry who they want. Well, at least Elle's kind of sort of been given a choice, and honestly, it's the kind of cream of the crop pickings that any girl would kill for. Elle's not so sure though - and what's with the whole plan for disguise?
1. Introduction

**The Royal Affairs of Elle Fairfax**

_An Introduction_

Meet Miss Eleanor Margaret Victoria Nobel Fairfax – almost ubiquitously known as Elle Fairfax (because nobody needs five names; two is perfectly fine, thank you very much) and _not_ generally known as granddaughter to one leader of the Holy Land (not God), Nobel Michel XIII.

Throw one convoluted, implausible yet strictly adhered to tradition and an even more ridiculous plan (thought up by one overly creative and rather zealous great grandfather) into her life, and what you have is a whole lot of fraternizing with royals, sneaking around, disguises, and lies, and what will hopefully be a fairy tale ending.

Here's hoping to anyways.

_I decided to write this because of my (relatively) new-found obsession for this otome game and also because I didn't think there were enough BMP fanfics on here._

_I don't usually write in first person – so here goes…_


	2. One

_Be warned: Here be language. Language of an impolite nature._

* * *

**One**

_the unlikely piece of factual information that kicked my ass right into this mess_

My great-grandfather on my mother's side is known to most of the world as Lord Nobel Michel XIII, the patron of the Holy Land which adopted the name of the very first Nobel Michel. Despite what most people think of him, he's really a very nice old man – the kind that adores all his grandchildren and great grandchildren and still gives you an allowance even after your parents feel you've outgrown one. When I was little, I used to think he was actually Santa Claus because I thought he must have been at least like, a hundred years old and he was always (and still is) so freaking jolly all the time.

Non (that's what I call him) is one of my favorite people in world, and in the summertime when I'm not off at school, I join him for tea every Saturday afternoon, which is the setting for what is about to be a huge turning point in my life.

Nobel Michel Castle is a world heritage site and having been there myself, I can assure you that it is absolutely spectacular. Built on the top of the hill that sits on an island floating between four spectacular countries, it feels like you can see the entire world from the castle windows. Everything inside and out is absolutely pristine, displaying a priceless collection of art, history, and architecture. My favourite place though, has to be the gardens.

The gardens are so beautiful, especially in the spring and summer when all the flowers are blooming and everything is colours with a backdrop of vivid green grass and leaves and bright blue skies. The air is so fresh and fragrant with the scent of the flowers and every once in a while, a breeze from the ocean blows by, feeling so refreshing it's hard to put such enjoyment into words.

Sitting out in the gardens at the table set up for tea across from Non, I can't help feeling a bit like I'm in a fairy tale. The sounds of Zain pouring us tea rises over the quiet din of being outdoors. I watch with open admiration as Zain gently places a cup of steaming tea in front of Non with a quiet, "my lord" and then place an identical cup in front of me, "Miss Eleanor."

"Please, call me Elle," I tell him with what I'm hoping to be my most charming smile.

Zain merely smiles politely at me in a very noncommittal sort of way before standing upright again. I catch Non's eyes and we exchange a grin; it's been a long time since Zain's polite refusal of my very open affections has bothered me. I think it comes with growing up (though apparently giving up doesn't).

"Stiff as always," I lament with a playful pout.

Non chuckles. "Ho ho, Elle, my darling, any smart man would know that he needs to keep a guard up around you."

"Grandpa, you make me sound like I'm some kind of siren!" I point out, pretending to be affronted.

"Quite the contrary my dear," he says after taking a sip of tea. "I'm sure you have a less sinister kind of charm – it seems a certain _somebody_ has taken quite the liking to you."

His eyes pan casually to the direction of one of the trees and I follow his gaze to find Theo, the butler-in-training lurking there, watching us. I flash him a smile and the boy's cheeks turn as red as his hair as he quickly busies himself.

"But your unmistakeable charisma is beside the point," Non continues. "What I really wanted to talk about today was your future."

"My future?" I ask, suddenly feeling a bit uneasy. The truth was that I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do with my future but I certainly didn't want to tell that to Non. Usually, we talk about much lighter subjects.

"Yes," he beams. "Now that you are eighteen, I feel that it is an appropriate time to tell you."

For a moment, my eyes flicker to Zain, wondering if he knew something about what I was about to find out, but he simply smiled passively as ever. Sometimes I wonder whether the man is actually a robot – he's just… to perfect, all the darned time.

"You see, Eleanor, when the Holy Land was first established, the leaders of the world at the time set about a tradition to maintain the ties between the Holy Land and the outside world. Every fourth generation, a direct descendant of Nobel Michel must wed the heir to the throne of one of the six great kingdoms."

"Okay," I reply, not really following because Non had lost me at around the word tradition. History has never been my strong suit (my favorite subjects in school being gym and lunch). "But what does that tradition have to do with me?"

Non watched me for a moment, looking more serious than I'd probably ever seen him look in my life. "Eleanor, you are the sixteenth generation descendant of Nobel Michel, and what's more, you are my only great-granddaughter."

It took a while for the words to sink in.

"So what you're getting at is that I… am engaged to a prince." I said slowly, realizing how fantastic the words sounded coming out of my mouth.

"Not exactly," Non corrected. "But you will be. The tradition is that you announce your engagement at nineteen and you marry at twenty-one."

A spittle of tea dribbled through my lips as I choked in what I can only imagine to be a very unflattering reaction to his words. I coughed, eyes watering from the hot tea going down the wrong pipe and immediately, Zain was offering me an eyelet lace handkerchief with gentle concern in his eyes.

"Are you serious?" I wheezed, wiping my eyes.

"I am afraid so," Non said. "It is a hundred year old tradition and the countries, well aware of this already are expecting you to uphold it."

"I've never even met them though," I said quietly. "And, and…"

I found myself lost for words to say, feeling heavy with the burden of this sudden responsibility. The air around me seemed to feel more constricting, my chest was getting hot, I could hardly hear the words that Non was saying to me.

"Eleanor, the princes are all wonderful young men."

I could see the world around me getting darker, vision fading into darkness until I couldn't see even though I was conscious and I knew that my eyes were opened.

"I think you will come to be very fond of them once you've had a chance to know them…"

Then my body gave out.

The next thing I recall is waking up in the familiar room that I always stayed in when I was at Nobel Michel Castle. It was dark outside and the room was lit with the dim flickering light of candles.

"You're awake," came a subdued voice. Theo was sitting in a chair by my bed, looking worried. "How do you feel?"

"Fine," I reply, hearing my voice crack with the word. "What happened?"

"You passed out, while you were having tea with Lord Michel," Theo reminds me. "Are you sure you're alright? Everyone's been worried sick."

"I feel alright," you tell him. "I think it was just shock."

"I heard," Theo says glumly. "About you having to marry a prince."

"How could you have? I only just found out today."

"They maids were talking about it," he shrugs. "Going on about how lucky you are because you get to pick from the six most eligible bachelors to be your husband."

"Lucky?" I muse. "Guess that's one way of putting it."

"Maybe the grass is always greener?" Theo suggests.

I can't help but grin at him. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

I try to get up but Theo stands up at once, looking alarmed. "You're supposed to stay in bed and rest. I don't think Lord Michel wants you to go wandering around. Besides, there are a ton of reporters here tonight – they're just trying to catch some photos of the guests but it'd be an even bigger story if they caught one of you."

"I just want some fresh air. It's so stifling in this room."

Theo watches dubiously as you get out of bed. You smile at him in reassurance.

"It'll be fine," you tell him. "Anyways, if there are any reporters, you can protect me from them, right?"

"Uh, yeah," he replies blushing as he follows after me out of the room.

We walk together through the castle, footsteps echoing through the grand hallways of gold and marble. Distant music can be heard coming from the ballroom. I can only imagine all the people there, dressed up splendidly, lavishing in their opulent lives. The princes were down there too, Theo had said.

"Have you ever met them before?" I ask suddenly.

"What? Who?"

"The princes," I reply, turning back to look at Theo.

Theo is only a few years younger than I am, with messy red hair, and his uniform all messed up like a rebellious schoolboy. He looks nothing like butlers usually do (which is absolutely immaculate), and he's a bit outspoken, and rough with his work, but I like him. He's easy to talk to, and because he can be himself around me, I don't feel any hesitation to be myself around him too.

"I've seen them around sometimes," Theo answers. "I've never talked to any of them though."

"I don't even know what they look like," you remark, frowning.

"Don't they teach you about these things in school?"

"No," you answer bluntly.

Theo laughs. "They're all old, and shrivelled up, and ugly!"

"Hey, I have to _marry_ one of those ugly, old, shrivelled up men!" I remind him indignantly, but I can't help joining in his contagious mirth.

The next day the realization hits me full force and I lie in bed for a long time after I wake up, letting it sink in.

_Wow. I'm getting married_.

My parents and Non come to visit me in my room like I'm a sick patient at a hospital. They take their seats by my bed, looking sorry and concerned.

"We're sorry we didn't tell you sooner, but we just wanted to wait until you were ready to make this kind of decision."

"And you though eighteen is a good age to decide on who you're going to marry?" I ask dryly.

"We ran out of time, honey," my father replies. "Unless you wanted us to tell you the day before the wedding."

"Guess not," I said, grinning at the ridiculous notion. "I was never one of those girls that dreamed of marrying a prince, you know."

"We know, darling," my mother says kindly, taking my hand. "But sometimes we have to do things that go beyond just helping ourselves – the least you could do is get to know them, right?"

"I suppose," I concede.

"Eleanor," Non, who's been quiet the entire time finally speaks up. "All these years, I have kept the identities of my grandchildren and great-grandchildren out of the public eye because I didn't want people to treat you differently bases on who you had for relatives, but your identity won't be a secret for long.

"On your birthday next year, we will have a ball at this castle and you shall be introduced to the world as my great-granddaughter. Until then, it is my wish that you keep your identity a secret for a bit longer, so that you may get to see the princes as they would act towards you without any bias."

"But, isn't it difficult for regular people to have an audience with a prince let alone have the amount of time it takes to get to know them?"

"I'll have everything arranged for you, if you'll agree to it," Non says with the kind of smile that tells me he's already had everything arranged long before I even knew I was supposed to think about it.

"I guess," I reply, thinking all the while that it wasn't as if I ever had a choice in the matter.

"Wonderful!" Non exclaims happily with a clap of his hands. "It shall be arranged at once – Zain, you know what to do."

Zain nods and leaves in brisk steps to do whatever mysterious business he has to do. Theo comes up to me, holding a stack of six beautifully wrapped boxes, each with a card attached to it.

"Presents," Theo explains. "From the princes, for your eighteenth birthday. Maybe it'll help you to decide which kingdom you want to go visit first."

Left to my own devices, with six gorgeous gifts laid out in front of me, I looked at each one, wondering which one I was going to open first.

* * *

_I was going to make this longer, but I thought I would get your input (if you please):_

_What would the princes send as a present?_

_Also, who do you want to see picked first?_


	3. Two

**Two**

_presents from princes_

For my eighteenth birthday, I received a birthday present from each of the six princes. It wasn't as if I was friends with any of them – as a matter of fact, I'd never even met any of them before, but I suppose they had good reason to send me a birthday gift nonetheless. See, my great grandfather is Nobel Michel, and following some long standing tradition, I would have to marry one of the princes and I guess it would be somewhat of an honor to have the 'official tie' with the Holy Land for this generation.

How weird; marrying me, an honor.

Of course, I'd only found out about all this yesterday and today, well today I have to decide which prince I want to go and meet first. I sat on my bed, idly looking at the six wrapped boxes laid out before me. I sighed, trying not to think about how shallow it was to judge people by the gifts they gave.

The first present I reached for was actually quite heavy. It was wrapped in a luxurious indigo paper and ivory ribbon. The card attached was written in a neat cursive that read:

_Dear Miss Eleanor,_

_Happy birthday. _

_I hope your present will allow you to learn more about Dres Van. It is a quintessential item for anybody living here and I hope you will be able to make use of it too. I look forward to being able to meet you._

_Yours Truly,_

_Joshua Lieben_

Filled with a good amount of curiosity now, I unwrapped the present. Sitting in front of me was a heavy, leather-bound book titled 'Dres Van Constitution and Common Law'. I sat there, at a loss for how I was supposed to react.

He… he gave me a book on his country's laws? _What?_

I mean, it was a really beautiful book, but, _what_? What was I supposed to do with it?

I opened the book, flipping through the pages to find every single page crammed with fine prints of the different laws of the country. I wondered if he expected me read and remember all the rules or something.

Deciding that I would at least give the giant book a try later, I moved onto the next gift with mixed feelings. Maybe all of them were books on the different countries' laws (and it made me feel kind of bad to hope not since I should be grateful I was receiving any sort of gift at all).

The second gift that I reached for was wrapped in red, and was about the size of my palm. I picked this one figuring it was too small to be a book and giving it a shake to make sure, I heard a rattling inside. Feeling somewhat relieved, I put the present down and opened the card.

This one was typed:

_Miss Eleanor,_

_Happy birthday, all the best wishes._

Under the message, a messy scrawl read '_Keith_'.

My first reaction was an involuntary disappointment at how impersonal the card. Immediately after I felt guilty because I had no right to feel this way at all. First of all, I'm sure that princes are very busy and secondly, he doesn't know me at all so it's not like I expected something more… _personal_ but still, sometimes we can't help what we feel regardless of reason.

Opening the present, I found a huge, shining scarab beetle staring back at me and I almost screamed from the surprise of it. Certainly I did drop it back onto the bed, shuffling backwards to the other side of my bed in my haste to get away from that _thing_.

Then I collected myself enough to realize it wasn't a real bug. Well, it was a real bug, but it was encased in resin and framed by gold, emeralds and sapphires. The whole thing was a pendant, hanging on a brilliant gold chain. It was easily the… most interesting and most extravagant piece of jewellery I'd ever even seen let alone be gifted.

I put the necklace on and let the giant beetle hang there on my chest. It was heavy, and weird. And I found myself laughing because it _really_ was a weird present. Surely, _surely_ nobody who'd been given the task of picking out a present for an eighteen year old girl would have picked that out… maybe the prince picked it out himself.

Smiling at the thought, I took off the necklace, gave it one last look, and put it back in the box (because it was too fancy a necklace to be worn on this occasion) and picked out the next present.

The box came wrapped in a pretty periwinkle and light pink ribbons – very girlish and pretty. The card that came along with it contained a message written in an elegant script:

_To my dearest Eleanor,_

_I hope that this letter finds you well. _

_I would like to wish you all the happiness for your eighteenth birthday and all your birthdays to come. It is my greatest wish to be there in person to celebrate your birthday however, given the circumstances, I hope you will accept all my sincerest apologies for not being able to do so. In the future, I hope to be able to deliver my birthday greetings in person._

_I shall be waiting with the greatest anticipation for the day that we may meet and I wish to be able to show you the beautiful country of Charles and that you may come to love it as much as I._

_In the interim, it is my hope that you will find the gift that I have sent to your liking and that you will think of me when you use it. _

_Love always,_

_Edward._

It was probably the nicest anyone had ever written to me and the words brought a smile to my face and I reread the letter several more times, feeling extremely special all the while.

Charles, was known to be the most romantic country in the world, and it seemed fitting that they had a prince to fit the image. Still grinning and feeling a little giddy, I opened his present.

Beneath the wrapping paper was a beautifully crafted wooden box and upon opening it, I found the most beautiful hair clip adorned with crystal roses and pearls on a silver framing that was shaped to look like stems and leaves. It was the most precious thing I'd ever seen.

Honestly, I'm not really that much of a girly girl, but I did let out an '_awww_' when I saw it. It was just lovely.

Three presents down, three more to go. I looked over the unwrapped presents – a law book, a beetle necklace, and a rose hairclip. They were, all so different, and I could only imagine how different the princes would be when I met them.

The next gift was wrapped in a flowered paper – a powder blue with pretty pink cherry blossoms patterned all over. Inside the envelope that held the card there was also a sheet of white paper on which a child (I presumed) had drawn a picture of a rainbow, a sun, clouds, and a field of flowers. Across the rainbow was the message, _Happy Birthday! Love Alan_. I smiled wide because it was freaking adorable.

The card inside had the message:

_Dear Miss Eleanor,_

_A very happy birthday to you. I hope that we'll be able to meet soon and that you might be able to visit Oriens. You'll always be welcome here._

_Sincerely yours,_

_Glenn J. Casiraghi_

Glenn's (and Alan's) gift was the biggest – and opening it, I found another beautiful wooden box. Inside was beautiful tea set that came with a tea pot and four dainty little teacups. They were clay, with little blossoms embossed on them.

Adorable times two.

Somehow, everything about this present was just so endearing and so precious, a big smile spread inadvertently across my face and it stayed there, even as I reached for the next gift.

_Eleanor,_ the card read,_ Ellie – can I call you that?_

_Happy birthday! I can't believe you're eighteen already! I remember that Lord Michel always talked about you when you were younger and I always wanted to meet you and we'll get to meet soon!_

_I really hope we'll get along and that we can at least become good friends._

_Much love,_

_Roberto_

_P.S. I hope you like your present – I thought it was really fun!_

It was funny how the excitement was so obvious even from his writing. I mean, all those exclamation marks, but Roberto definitely seemed like the most personable prince. I considered what he'd written, the part about Non talking to the princes about me. I guess most grandparents are doting grandparents but I really had no idea that he'd been telling the princes stories about me (nothing embarrassing, I hope).

Wondering what he could have found so fun, I unwrapped his gift to find a set of Matryoshka dolls inside the box. It was made of wood, hand painted.

The outer most doll was painted to be a King, wearing what I could only assume to be the traditional wear of the country that Roberto ruled. I opened the biggest doll and inside was a smaller one, the queen, followed by a prince, princes, and even a cat and a dog. The whole set laid before me was an adorable royal family.

Seeing the dolls and imagining Prince Roberto being amused by them brought another smile to my face. I didn't even realize how much I'd been enjoying these gifts until a twinge of sadness came with the realization that I was at my last one.

The last present was wrapped in a pretty ivory and the card had a neatly written message.

_Dear Miss Eleanor,_

_Happy eighteenth birthday. I hope that you will be able to come to Phillip soon and we all eagerly await your visit._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Wilfred A. Spencer_

Yours sincerely… I read the card twice to try and get a feel for what Prince Wilfred – polite, sincere? I wasn't sure what else. Deciding to leave it for now, I unwrapped his gift. It was a gorgeous wind up carousel with a Faberge design. Each of the mounts that went around the carousel was different and each of them was intricately designed and absolutely beautiful.

I wound up the top and the carousel began to spin, all the little horses and unicorns and lions, tigers, and bears going round and up and down. A tinkling to the tune of Clair de Lune began to play, filling the whole room with the serene music.

When the song ended, I sat there, surrounded by six open presents and faced with the choice of which of them to pick.

Honestly, I wanted to meet them all now, to see what they were like – to thank them for taking the time to write the cards and pick out such lovely presents.

I placed them neatly on the coffee table in my room and deliberated for a long time before coming to my decision.

I walked to Non's door and knocked.

"Come in," came his voice from the other side of the door.

Non was sitting at his desk, reading some documents. He smiled up at me knowingly from over his glasses.

"Hi Non," I said, entering his office and stopping before his desk. "I think I've made my decision."

He beamed at me, looking as pleased as he did this morning. "Excellent, excellent! Who is it that you wish to meet first, my dear?"

I only hesitated for a moment, deliberating and making absolute sure that this was my final choice before giving him my answer.

* * *

_The prince comes next chapter - so you know, last chance for you to tell me who you'd like to see, hehe_

_And a special thanks to the lovelies who left me a review _

_(and Emma - your suggestion was actually amazing. Thanks girl c:)_


End file.
